Polymerization generally involves polymerization of one or more monomers to make a polymeric product. The polymerization reaction can be carried out using a wide variety of reactors, catalysts, and a wide variety of monomer feeds. Often, liquids, diluents or solvents are used in these polymerization reaction processes for various reasons such as to increase the efficiency of the polymerization reaction and recovery of polymer product.
An example of a polymerization process that incorporates the use of a hydrocarbon diluent is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,470,143 (Schrage et al.). Specifically, the Schrage patent discloses a laboratory scale polymerization reaction that incorporates the use of an organic fluorinated carbon compound as the diluent.
There are needs for improved polymerization processes, for example reducing reactor fouling at commercial scale, enhancing the commercial grade slate of polymer products produced from a given process, increasing polymer production capacity without significant investment where these process improvements necessitate more efficient recovery systems that provide environmental benefits as well as cost reductions. In particular, there is a need for increasing polymerization catalyst activity, while maintaining a low degree of reactor fouling, and for producing a wide grade of commercial polymer products.